The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer

She used to work for the U.S. government, but very few people ever knew that. An expert in her field, she was one of the darkest secrets of an agency so clandestine it doesn’t even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning.

Now she rarely stays in the same place or uses the same name for long. They’ve killed the only other person she trusted, but something she knows still poses a threat. They want her dead, and soon.

When her former handler offers her a way out, she realises it’s her only chance to erase the giant target on her back. But it means taking one last job for her ex-employers. To her horror, the information she acquires only makes her situation more dangerous.

Resolving to meet the threat head-on, she prepares for the toughest fight of her life but finds herself falling for a man who can only complicate her likelihood of survival. As she sees her choices being rapidly whittled down, she must apply her unique talents in ways she never dreamed of.

At the beginning, I was almost interested. I was curious what’s going on, why the main character is in hiding, what did she do? But then it all went downhill and I really struggled to finish the book.

Basically, the story is that the main character with many names, but for most of the book known as Alex is on the run from US government. The secret black ops are looking for her, but we don’t know exactly why, and neither does she. She just knows that they trying to kill her. Alex was working as a chemist for the back operations, creating very specific solutions that are designed for torture, and she was questioning suspects. She was mainly involved in fighting biologic bombs.

So this all sounded quite good, and fairly interesting. But then romance aspect was introduced. And I just couldn’t stand it. I won’t go into details how she meets the person, so not to give too much of the story for those who decide to read the book. But how they met, and how the guy reacts to her is just ridiculous. The guy feels special about her, and he had feelings for her the moment he sees her for the first time. And with all this instant love, there are circumstances that make this instant love ridiculous and unbelievable. The guy is so, so naive. There is no way that in this circumstances someone will be so naive, and apologetic, and caring. I also noticed that the author makes a point of showing us that Alex didn’t sleep with the guy after all the make-out sessions they had. The sex happens only later in the book, I assume, it’s not explicit. We spend a lot of time of this ‘thriller’ just following two adults playing home and kissing.

There are three main characters, again, I’m not gonna introduce them all, because of spoilers. But they are all very simple and boring. And I couldn’t stand them. Alex is super smart and ‘not good at people stuff’, and she doesn’t get how the guy could fall in love with her, she’s so ugly. The guy is super naive, and nothing deters him from Alex. The third character is super strong, protective of the guy and resents Alex.

I didn’t like this book at all. It’s full of clichés, and simple characters. There is way too much cheesy romance. Too much stuff just happens just because there must be a happy ending, and we don’t really see a reason for it. I didn’t care about the characters, I didn’t care about anything, and because halfway through the book I lost all my expectations that something will happen, I wasn’t disappointed. Book is also way too long, over 500 pages! Come on! It was a huge mistake to pick up this book.

I also wasn’t expecting it to be good, but I was curious. And I’m sad that I spend so much precious reading time on this book, but it seems that I already saved other reader’s precious time, so you know… public service 😉

I was actually pretty optimistic about this, but I read exactly two chapters before I had to take a break. It was just awful! I still want to give it a little more of a chance (I try to do at least 25% before DNF-ing something), but it expires from the library soon, so it may not happen.

I was mildly interested in this book, but had some reservations as I have read The Host by the same author and had a lot of the same issues with it that you seem to have with The Chemist. After seeing your review, I’ll definitely be passing. Thanks for sharing.

I saw Stephenie Meyer in the Reader and I just HAD to see if this was the same Stephenie Meyer who wrote Twilight. And…I can’t believe it is LOL. Although I WILL admit I liked The Host. I didn’t even know she wrote another book, but it seems this was a bad move on her part. I’ll be sure to avoid this one. Thanks for the heads up! 😀

I’m kinda glad this book stunk smelly butts. I was very unhappy about the genre switch, and I feel Meyer has tried to distance herself from Twilight as much as she can. Besides trying to make a quick buck off her fans with the reimagining several years ago, of course. If she doesn’t return to what she does best, she might disappear from the literary world forever.

What’s interesting is that on the cover it says ‘Bestselling author of the Host’, no mention if the Twilight. And the main reason The Host was a bestseller was because Meyer was so popular with her Twilight series. So it definitely looks like trying to distance herself.

Yup. The Host was “technically” an adult book. She thinks Twilight tarnishes her. Get all the money and fame…then bolt. I’ve been talking about this with another girl (I gave her your site address so she can read the review) and we both are kinda pissed she’s dissing her fans so openly. Doesn’t she realize that the only people who would read the book are still YA readers? Because we know her? And we aren’t going to like this book! Hopefully she will see the error of her ways and return to what made her a household name.
Maybe she’s embarrassed that some people say Twilight is poorly written? (Though I never thought so). And she’s trying to prove she’s got the chops? 🤔